My Day: Aunt Jemima Syrup Two Billion Dollar Lawsuit

Did you know that Anna Short Harrington was a real person? Her face only is famous all over the world. That is the face of the famous branded Aunt Jemima Syrup. She died in 1955. Her image has been on the bottle of Aunt Jemima Syrup since 1935 along with other various products massed produced by several companies.

The grandson of Aunt Jemima, nee Anna Short Harrington, has filed a two($2) billion dollar class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and all of her great grandchildren. The lawsuit is filed against Quaker Oats, PepsiCo, Pinnacle Food Group and The Hillshire Brands Company. These companies have used this image without equitable fair share of royalties for over sixty(60)years. After Anna Short Harrington took on the role of the Aunt Jemima character in 1935, her likeness was used by the companies and a trademark was registered for it in 1937. When confronted with this information, the companies denied that she was ever an employee, stating they could not find any employee records. The denial continued as it relates to exploiting her image and recipes (plural) for profit.

Anna Short Harrington was supposedly selected because of her own pancake recipe. Now the companies have added waffles , etc, to the line of tasty breakfast goodies. Royalties lawsuits have an uphill battle in today’s marketplace, mainly because the court’s are overwhelmed. The Temptations (Motown male vocal group) launched a class action lawsuit for digital royalties. The larger, more pronounced lawsuits are about music sampling, and of course, the royalty rip-offs relating to oil and gas.

In the case of the pancake royalties, the family think they have a chance at collecting their overdue inheritance. Quaker Oaks find no validity to the action. Stay tuned. Ester Davis can be reached at esterdayone@gmail.com. JOIN me at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship for the Cancer Lecture Series. Thanks to Clarksville, Texas, Zion Travelers Baptist Churc h, for having me as your Speaker.